Do you know how to play Chess? I can’t say I do, but that didn’t deter me from going to watch ‘Chess The Musical’, which has helped me to see the game in a whole new light. This saucy minx of a show was performed before a packed audience in suburban Woking, and had me rocking in my seat.

Steve ran his first of nine London marathons in 2001, from a total of 21 marathons he has run internationally. After hitting the wall at the 22 mile mark, he vowed he would never run another marathon and was just happy to finish!

Have you stood on the sidelines, watching the London Marathon runners in awe, thinking ‘’I could do that?’’ Or do you just relish the idea of a real challenge with Winter ahead? Well, running the 2011 London marathon may not be as far beyond your reach as you might think! With charity places still available, it’s not too late to enter.

Think ’Zandra Rhodes’ and ‘fashion show’ and you might, like me, reject all that ‘fashion’ nonsense, preferring your Primark to Prada any day. So I was pleasantly surprised to experience a taste of affordable fashion at the Pure London Festival, Kensington Olympia, in a new range of exquisite, quality handbags, designed by none other than iconic fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

Do you remember the smoke machines at school discos? Well I bet you never saw a strapping half-man half-bird with massive wings emerge from the middle of the smoke in your school hall! If not, this is just one of the visual treats to behold at the English National Ballet’s production of Swan Lake, which was greeted by rapturous audience applause on opening night.

This June the Royal Albert Hall is opening its doors to Derek Deane’s spectacular Swan Lake in-the-round, performed by the National Ballet and starring Polina Semionova and Vadim Muntagirov – an event for any culture vulture’s diary this summer!

Uninspired by the often tired-looking selection of food on offer at your local supermarket, including greying vegetables and suspiciously over-orange and under-ripe oranges? Well, get yourself down to the Real Food Festival at Earls Court, where all the food and drink you see is just that: the real deal.

Last week, I was invited to a special evening hosted by PizzaExpress, where I got the chance to sample their new spring menu which introduces new Leggera pizzas and mini desserts that, to my delight, were light on the calories but still extremely satisfying. Plus there was the chance to sample a limited edition election pizza, as well as try my hand at being a pizzaiolo!

You step on a crowded London Underground train in rush hour, and immediately to your right, there’s a guy with white iPod earbuds, and heavy rap music writhing through the stale underground air and around the sweaty heads towards you. Could this be hell?